The Wrong People
by OFIS
Summary: Things never quite get boring on Destiny. The wrong people in the wrong place often have interesting results.
1. People

A/N:  So I was not planning on writing SGU fanfiction. I have other projects I'm neglecting for this. Unfortunately for those projects, I'm more inclined toward short oneshots than slaving away at anything more ambitious.

These are meant to focus on characters in particular. Criticism is both welcome and desperately desired.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Rush knew it would happen sooner or later. He'd had a feeling. At one time or another, one of the planets they'd visit would yield up a sentient species, and some sort of trouble would ensue.

It was also a law of the universe that applied specifically to Stargate program that when said happenstance occurred, inevitably the program would gain an alien member. Since they'd first dropped out of FTL, Rush had been waiting for it with a sort of dread.

After all, the last couple of rogues that had been accepted had pretty much been muscle for the military. While he was sure that Ronon, Teyla and Teal'c had contributed greatly to the Stargate program, it was exactly this sort of environment they would be redundant in.

So when Eli had sent through the kino and said something to the equivalent of "Oh my god, Wookies!", Rush had braced himself for the sure to be newest conflict on the ship. Meanwhile, Eli babbled on to himself, like he usually did when he was amazed, which was frustratingly often.

"-thought we were the only ones out here, but we're not! Are they friendly do you think, or will we even be able to understand them? D'you think we should try to go through or-"

"Eli." Rush interrupted, and the chatter immediately stopped.

"..sorry." Eli said, so abashedly, Rush almost felt bad. Almost.

"Well what do you propose we do, Colonel?" He asked turning to the man with a challenging expression.

"You don't seem very surprised." Young replied, eyes flicking from the footage of a few aliens approaching the kino cautiously to Rush. Rush stared back impassively.

"It's only logical there are other lifeforms, Colonel. It's a large galaxy, after all."

For a long time there was a silence.

"...wow." Eli breathed, glued to the screen. One of the aliens had a hold of the kino, and was holding it staring at the Stargate, making deep guttural noises to its few comrades. To call them Wookies wasn't quite right. They were shorter than an average human, as far as Rush could tell, and looked more like bipedal felines.

"Well we certainly can't understand them." Young noted.

"I wouldn't suggest going through." Rush advised, eyes hard.

"Why not?" Eli protested, before Young could open his mouth. "This is our first chance at alien contact!"

"Except for them things in the water." Greer added, breaking his silence with a shudder.

"Exactly." Rush answered.

"Shut down the gate for now." Young ordered. "Rush, come with me."

The scientist met Eli's downcast expression with a raised eyebrow, and then followed the Colonel out of the gateroom.

"Colonel." Rush finally said, when they were out of hearing range. Young stopped and turned slowly, leaning heavily on his improvised crutch. "What do you want?"

"How much have you found out about Destiny's purpose?" The Colonel asked, expression deadpan. Rush rather got the impression he was still of the idea that he knew more than he let on. Well, good, he could work with that.

"As a whole, not much." Rush admitted, arms crossed. "Why do you ask?"

"Every time we've stopped before, it's been for something we need. Supplies. A cure." said Young, leaving off, and rubbing his forehead tiredly.

"This time there are people." Rush finished, and he lapsed into thought, rubbing at the stubble on his chin.

"What do you think?" Young prompted.

"Oh, now you'll ask for my opinion." Rush snapped, but not with much passion. Young avoided that sore topic as tactfully as possible.

"I figure I'll ask it now instead of finding out afterward that you were right." Young answered neutrally. For a moment, Rush's only reply was the hissing of air as he sighed through tight teeth.

"Destiny's always been right." He said finally, but he didn't look happy about it.

"Isn't that just the way of things." Young noted.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

I don't particularly like this one. If it sounds like it started out as a longer story, it did. But it's just a oneshot for 'what if' purposes.


	2. ProblemSolving

A/N: This one is better planned, and I rather like it. I've been toying with Eli/Rush for a bit, and I can't see them as a full-blown pairing- but that being said, they've got something. Dunno what it is. But it's definitely there, and it's something.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Rush was taking his break. Which, considering the amount of day-to-day problems Destiny and her bedraggled 'crew' faced, was not much of one. His break, in fact, was the ten minutes it took for him to eat his daily ration, and he spent those ten minutes puzzling out the things he'd been working on earlier.

He sat alone, as always, because other people trying to make conversation annoyed him, and there were very few people who ever felt the need to approach him.

"Hey Doc!"

Rush swallowed, then looked up and pinned Eli with a withering gaze. The younger man was obviously in a cheery mood, for it failed to make him falter in the least.

"Eli." Rush acknowledged, in the most grudging of tones.

"Guess who just found another function of the kinos?" Eli half-sang, pulling out the chair across from his fellow genius and grinning with more zest than Rush was sure he'd ever felt in his whole life.

"I thought you were working on stabilizing the power to the outer sections?" Rush asked, mechanically eating another spoonful of the porridge-like substance they ate every day. Technically it was some sort of gruel, some of the more bright grunts had creatively termed sludge.

"Well, yeah, I was." Eli admitted, squirming slightly and looking exactly like a kid trying to worm his way out of punishment. Rush felt his blood pressure rise steadily. Eli obviously sensed this, and hurried on to explain. "But then one of the kino's was acting strangely, and that was distracting me so I took it down and-"

"Do you understand what we're trying to do here, Eli?" Rush questioned sharply, pushing the half-eaten bowl to the side and leaning over the table. Eli leaned back and mumbled incoherently, as the angry lines on the older scientist's forehead deepened. Then, abruptly, Rush reigned himself in, sitting back and pinching the bridge of his nose. Eli blinked cautiously as Rush took a deep breath.

"...just try to keep on task, would you?" Eli thought the man's words were almost a gentle plead. He guiltily nodded.

"Yeah, of course, I'm sorry. In fact I'll-"

"What does it do, then?" Rush interrupted, before Eli was quite halfway out of his seat. The shocked man was at a loss of words for a moment, then settled back down on the right track.

"They can fix those little malfunctions that have been slowing us down, which means we don't have to suit people up and have 'em do it by hand." Eli explained proudly.

"Well, it looks like your little pets have some use after all." Rush commented lightly, with a crooked smile. Eli returned it hesitantly.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Well after I'm finished you can help me then, and put the kinos to work." Rush decided, pulling his food back to finish.

"Uh, right, then. Actually-" Eli stumbled over his words, while Rush watched serenely, waiting. "I haven't eaten yet either, so..." The scientist raised an eyebrow. "I guess I'll join you?"

Rush realized that this would be the first time he'd eaten with anyone since before they'd been thrown onto Destiny. He glanced around the established cafeteria, which was half-full of people, some of whom Eli had always seemed to prefer over himself. He bowed his head, hiding a wry smile.

"I suppose so." He answered, in heavy brogue.

"Alright." Eli answered. "It's a date." The weight of that statement failed to hit him, until he realized Rush was giving him a look. "Oh!" He said quickly, flustered. "Not like that, I just, I mean-"

"You'd better be quick."

"Yeah, yeah, okay."

Rush rubbed at his forehead, and halfheartedly tried to remember those equations that had so quickly fled his mind. Inevitably though, Eli returned, bringing words with him, and Rush gave up on that venture, and set himself to the task of treading the fine line between making Eli think he enjoyed his company and driving him off completely.

Because of yet, he hadn't figured out the problem of What to Do About Eli, and until that was done, figuring out anything else was going to be a distracted enterprise.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

What Do We Do About Eli?


	3. Owners

A/N: So I decided I should write one that didn't have Rush as a central character. So I was all "TIEM FOR ELI" and then Rush shoved his way in. But whoa hey, he's the crankiest character on SGU, of course he'll wiggle his way into my fics, yeah?

x.x

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Eli was more familiar than most other people with his peculiar habits, namely because his mother had been an honest person, and he'd had a friend of a similar strain back in junior high.

And really, he hadn't changed much since junior high.

Right now he was indulging himself in one of his occasional mind wanderings, starting on one thing he saw and then letting his mind loose on the scent until he find himself contemplating dwarf stars and staring at a stray cat.

Instead of a rogue feline this time around though, Eli had pinned his gaze on Doctor Nicholas Rush, neglecting his assigned task as thoroughly uninteresting and terribly menial. It occurred to him then, that perhaps there wasn't much of a difference between Rush and the arrogant longhair that had occasionally breezed through his neighborhood.

While Eli was busily entertaining himself down that train of that thought, Rush was feeling a tug on his attention away from his usual station. The younger man watched interestedly as Rush switched his weight from one leg to the other, and then ran a hand through his hair. If he could compare that to cat behavior, that would be the equivalent of a quick back stretch, and the perhaps a quick grooming of the face.

Yes, the more he thought of it, the more it seemed plausible that Rush was very catlike. Cats were, after all, associated with trickery and uncanny intelligence, and resented by many people. One exception, of course, was the Egyptians who practically worshiped their animals, and wasn't it funny that Stargates were found in Egypt and here they were with a cat to help them out?

"What are you doing?"

Eli jumped out of his reverie, frantically searching for a sensible reply and while a tiny part of his brain noted that Rush also had a stare as disdainful as any feline.

"Uh, I was just-" Eli scrabbled for the right phrase. Rush kept his gaze steady, and the younger man was half-steaming under dark eyes he was now perhaps likening towards a white shark and-

"Thinking." He finished, with a weak smile. Rush blinked at him, which was a subtler way for him to say 'I can't believe I'm sharing breathing space with someone as thick as you'.

"Be sure not to hurt yourself." The scientist replied, sinking into the words with dark sarcasm. Eli mumbled some affirmative and turned back to his station. For a few minutes there was silence.

"Did you ever own a cat?" He asked, getting the burning question off his chest. Rush took a moment to respond, and his face spasmed with the apparent effort it took to reply civilly.

"No." He answered, cutting the word short. They looked at each other for a few minutes. Then Eli slowly swiveled back to his work. He was sure that the old adage about owners and pets would be true, but then-

But then no one ever _owned_ a cat.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Disdainful character complex, what?


	4. Companion

So Justice blew my mind. I was raving at the TV. I no longer like Wray.

**OoOoOoO**

Rush had just been hit with a realization that rather disturbed him.

It hadn't been an easy thing to face. In fact, now that he thought about it, his subconscious had probably spent the last few weeks dragging his waking mind to this conclusion. Dragging his spitting, yowling, all hackles raised, claws out, unwilling waking mind to a sort of sudden thought.

And now that he was prey to this unwanted thought, he recognized that it was probably there to stay and would be a painful nuisance to get rid of. Nevertheless, he was a staunchly logical man, and anything could be removed. Doubtless he would have to begin immediately. It wouldn't be easy.

No one liked cutting off a hand for the sake of the body, but for the greater good-

Nicholas Rush could do almost anything for the greater good.

Somewhere along the line, and he couldn't quite identify where, he had come to think of Eli has a comrade. The word 'friend' couldn't quite be applied, and Rush had never had good luck with those anyway. And it wasn't a very good relationship, he could attest to that very well. Eli frequently annoyed him, and Rush was certain that he had done his share of returning the favor with his own cutting tongue.

If he could pin it down, he would say that it was Eli's company he minded the least, and this was probably because Eli was the only brain capable of following his train of thought. Yes, that was it.

Now, in order to prevent from tying his hands in future events where even a slight friendly affection would trip him up, he would have to attack this prequel to a feeling. He'd lost someone before, and that was a wound that still bled frequently, and he couldn't survive something like that here. People were too fragile to be counted on to live. Oh, he was well aware of how the people on Destiny reacted to his doctrine, but that was irrelevant. Rush need look no further than Eli's childish awkward attachment to the late senator's daughter to find relationships disgusting.

"Hey, got some good new for ya."

Rush jumped ever so slightly at the intrusion to his thoughts, rounding on the perpetrator with ever intention of a quick admonishment. Eli cut him off by shoving a bowl of processed food into his chest and continuing to chatter.

"So, Becker told me you hadn't been in the mess hall all day today or yesterday, and that he knew you got grumpy when you hadn't eaten, so here you are." Rush blinked, vaguely aware that perhaps he had been neglected his daily food intake, and somewhat confused that Becker would care. This train of thought had derailed his new found determination, which he then regained and stopped himself from thanking Eli.

"A spoon?" He asked rudely, looking at Eli with a blank expression. Eli looked slightly hurt, but recovered with one of his awkward smiles.

"Right, here you go."

Utensil gained, Rush was somewhat disgruntled by the fact that Eli did not immediately leave. This was not going exactly with plan. For a few moments, Rush stared at Eli, waiting for him to leave, and Eli waited, concealing a grin rather terribly.

"Well aren't you going to eat it?" Eli prodded. Rush gave a small snort, and then ate a spoonful. His eyebrows lifted and he swallowed.

"Banana." He identified, surprised.

"Isn't it cool?" Eli burst out, obviously having been waiting for the moment. "They got some flavorings now, so no more eating cardboard!"

"I suppose that has raised morale?" Rush asked, rubbing at his eyes and finding his way to a proper seat. Eli followed him, much to his disappointment.

"Yeah, definitely."

"Thank you." Rush told Eli, stiffly folding up his legs and realizing he'd been standing at the console for longer than he had intended.

"No problem." Eli answered, and then left before Rush could say anything else. The scientist swirled a spoon around his bowl. He hadn't quite stuck to the plan, and perhaps it would require a little more thought. The lines around his forehead deepened as he frowned.

There was something about Destiny that seemed to make every issue twice as problematic as it had any right to be. But it hadn't prevented him from making tough decisions before, and this was exactly the time to stop himself from entangling himself. He was the person that this ragtag group depended on.

He couldn't afford to be human.


	5. Endings

I'm back! I swear SGU just reduces me to asldkfja;owiehasdkjf everytime I watch it, and then I have to sort it out like this. For some reason I'm gently shipping Chloe/Rush now. This oneshot isn't that pairing, though, unless I guess you really want it to be.

**0o0o0o0**

Chloe was there when Rush awoke. She couldn't say why, exactly, except that she felt uncomfortable around Eli, and running to Matt would have felt like defeat. She still had a sort of blank horror hanging on from when she'd been pushed back into her own body, hanging over the unconscious scientist with tools she hadn't the faintest clue how to use. Perhaps it was a sort of morbid curiosity, to see whether or not their cobbled together surgical equipment and inept techniques would ultimately kill their patient.

Rush did not wake peacefully. Rather, he seemed to jerk into consciousness with a deep shock, inhaling quickly. He sat up before the adrenaline faded, and hissed in pain. The venom-turned-anesthetic easily knocked a person out, but it faded fast. Chloe automatically jumped at Rush's sudden movement, and immediately he fixed his eyes on her.

He didn't say anything; his eyes were still sharp and dark, but they seemed slightly unfocused, like he was looking elsewhere. Other signs, like his haggard facial expression and lack of surety suggested he had just experienced a nightmare. Chloe was familiar with those.

"You still have them." She said, and her voice was toneless, but she couldn't help fiddling with her hands. Rush closed his eyes briefly, and then looked down at his chest, gingerly touching the bandage and then letting his eyes flit around the makeshift infirmary, his whole body tense.

"Did they remove it?" He asked. His voice was steady, and he looked Chloe in the eye. She faltered for a moment, and then continued, looking at the floor.

"TJ said you woke up while they were working-" Chloe started, and checked his expression. It didn't seem changed, except for a slight clench of the jaw that set a muscle in his temple. It meant irritation.

Chloe couldn't remember when she started being able to read his face.

"Did they-"

"Yes."

The conversation dropped audibly to the floor. Rush leaned back against the wall. Sweat still dampened his hair to his head, and it was clear he was exhausted. Chloe thought he looked old. She knew he wasn't young, but he'd always been endless. Something in her wavered, and she didn't like it at all.

"Do you think they'll go away now that they've left?" She asked, stepping forward a little further out of the shadow of the wall.

"I don't think it'll be that easy." He answered, looking straight forward. His tone rose with the sentence, but Chloe recognized that as a terrible sign. She closed her eyes, and suppressed a tiny noise that was growing in her throat with a swallow.

"We'll always have them." She said, flatly. A few weeks ago she might have protested against the idea- insisted on an answer. Now she felt half-dead, and the irreversible fact that she shared her own personal hell with this cold man went down almost easy.

Rush again avoided a reply, and instead slowly slid himself off the bed. Chloe immediately became alarmed, as the infirmary was empty. It increased when he had to rely on clinging to the bed with one arm to stay upright. His face was instantly full of undirected fury.

With a brief hesitation, she slipped in to support his unbandaged side, and put his arm around her neck. She had to be careful about where she put her other arm to hold him, but found a relatively safe spot on his hip. He gave a shuddering exhale in her ear.

"Do you know where my room is?"

Chloe looked up at him, ideas about how to get him back on the cot by herself dissolving away. He was uncomfortably close, and his dark eyes were doubly intimidating.

"Are you su-" She began, and then swallowed it, and felt something in her deaden again. "Yeah."

Their start was awkward and cripplingly slow. Neither of them was used to depending on the other, but eventually they found a rhythm. It was still a shuffling pace, and as her earlier adrenaline kept leeching away, Chloe found herself extremely tired. She kept waiting for someone to stop them, and she was especially worried she would find Matt around each corner, but the civilians were still in their quarters, and no one seemed to be roaming the halls. She worried too, that Rush should have stayed in the infirmary, and what TJ would say, but she somehow thought if she hadn't helped he might have tried on his own.

After several eternities, they reached his room, which was out of the main pathways and nearer to several unexplored and unused passageways that were cut off on account of hull breaches. Finally, they reached the edge of his bed, and Chloe lowered him down gently, even as he stubbornly remained in a sitting position. With his burden off her shoulders, she felt lighter, but also with unexplainable loneliness.

Matt.

What would she say to Matt?

"Thank you." Rush said, in a normal tone. Chloe looked at him. He looked hellish and half-dead and exhausted. She thought she could feel the tired rolling off of him, but it might have been her own sleep deprivation.

She felt several words bubble up in her throat- pasty, formal words that didn't begin to cover anything. She hovered, not knowing where to go. Rush looked at her, and he grinned crookedly, which for some reason made her ache.

"Good night, Chloe." He said, with complete understanding of the irony, even if it didn't cover the rest of the broiling emotion sitting tense in Destiny's air. She smiled.

"Good night."

Then she fled.

**0o0o0o0**

I want to know what those two were arguing about when Matt saw them... Hmm. Anyone else not like the Chloe/Matt thing? It gets under my skin sometimes, it seems juvenile somehow.


	6. Connected

I'm not dead. Probably. I've been watching SGU online which is why I'm horribly terribly behind. No spoilers. This is set in episode 2x04 I think. When Rush is looking after Chloe. I need to go to bed. Enjoy.

0o0o0o0o0o

Nicholas Rush was tired. It wasn't the worst of his problems; he had many. But it ate at him. Gloria was right, and sooner or later it would lead to carelessness he couldn't lie his way out of.

He still had so much to do.

"Rush?"

The scientist focused back on Chloe. She still had her hand raised in the air from where she'd handed him back the chalk and she looked lost and confused. She swallowed.

"What did I do?" She asked.

"Well," He answered, raising a brow and nodding at the equation she'd solved, "you saved me a lot of time."

Chloe opened her mouth and then shut it. There was a brief silence, and Rush looked over what she had written again, the wheels in his mind turning.

"I don't have the dreams anymore," Chloe volunteered, finally dropping her hand. She almost deliberately stared at the grating on the floor, avoiding the walls. Rush waited. "Do you?"

It'd been a few days since he'd last fallen into exhaustion in his quarters, and again before that. He fought sleep until it made him forget where he was and what he was doing and sank him into unconsciousness. If he dreamed, he didn't remember.

"No."

"You know, it's funny," Chloe said, after a little while. Rush looked at her and she met his gaze, looking vague and far away. "I sleep so much now, and I don't have them either. It's like-"

Rush turned abruptly and smudged out a few figures on another equation he was working on.

"It's like this is the dream." She finished. Chalk in hand, he hesitated over the blank spot, and fixed his mistake.

"Do you think you could look at this one?" He asked, civilly.

Later, after she'd solved and corrected a few more of the problems on his walls, Rush suggested they leave, and led her to the stairway that looked out the starboard side of the ship. He'd been the first to hang over the rail. Rush did that more often now, lean and support himself on things. He'd have to sleep soon.

There was so much to be done.

Normally he would at least shifted when Chloe joined him so close, but he was too tired to react. She said nothing, and eventually he relaxed.

"What did they do to us?" She asked. He ran a hand through his hair.

"I wish I knew."

That was a lie. He knew what they did to him; they had raped his mind, torn him apart. They had tortured him again and again and again. They'd done something different to Chloe.

It was curious. She'd been the one person on the ship least important to him: a Senator's daughter, a useless child, and yet she was quite likely the help he needed on the bridge. She had shared his nightmares.

When Matt showed up, he gathered the energy and pushed himself away from the railing.

"She's all yours."

0o0o0o0o0o

Crits would be awesome.


End file.
